MICKY Adams claims the Vale board have broken a pledge to fund a January recruitment drive, and fears the set-back could wreck the club's promotion bid.

The Vale boss says he was told to draw up a short-list of potential signings by Peter Miller when he was Vale chairman.

But now Adams has been left frustrated by a U-turn which could also scupper his attempts to re-sign loan trio Guy Madjo, Jennison Myrie-Williams and Liam Chilvers.

Speaking after yesterday's 2-1 League Two defeat by Cheltenham Town at Vale Park, Adams revealed: "I was told maybe three or four months ago there would be money available for me in January to strengthen the side.

"I've done all my homework, watched games, talked to managers, clubs and individuals, and waited for the green light.

"Unfortunately that green light is now a red light, so there won't be any new signings coming in during January.

"Unless the situation changes dramatically in the next 48 hours we'll have to say goodbye to the loan players as well.

"I'm disappointed because Mr Miller told me on more than one occasion to put together a list of potential signings, which I've done.

"I can't say it for definite, but the way it looks at the moment, there are no potential signings now. I need to talk to the powers-that-be and then I'll be able to say more about the loan players."

Miller remains a vale director, but his term as chairman ended on Sunday.

The lack of transfer funds will further alarm fans already concerned by Vale's finances after the club took out a £277,000 mortgage only last month to cover running expenses.

And while Adams remains bullish over his squad's promotion chances, he admits they may have to lower their sights after yesterday's defeat saw them slip to 13th.

Vale now trail the top-three automatic promotion places by 11 points, and the top-seven play-off zone by five.

"I've told the players that maybe we're not good enough to get into the top three and we have to understand the reasons for that because we haven't been good enough," he said.

"To get there we needed to bring some more bodies in, but there's still a play-off place to be won and I don't see why we shouldn't be in the frame. We'll try our best to achieve that.

"I've always had an open dialogue with the supporters, but if we all think there's a white charger coming over the hill, it's no longer there ... it's a donkey at the minute."

If the board have something to hide then administration is the last thing they would want as the adminstation team's first job would be to scrutinise the books to see if malpractise has occured. The result of that scrutiny then determines their report to the league which is then taken into account regarding points deductions and severity of penalties .

How can adminstration be the asnwer??? Look at Darlington admin 3 times in 9 years and still struggling.We need the shareholders to vote the board off which I'm sure will happen and get an interim board in to oversea the selling of the club look.If we go into admin we will be looking over our shoulder to drop into the conf and you don't see many teams bouncing back up from that league Darlington,Cambridge City,York City,Mansfield Town,Luton Town,Lincoln City,Stockport the list goes on and on.

Am a starve them out vale fan , and proud to be that ,most vale fans have had there head stuck in the sand , far to long, and even now still cant get it..
the board as already shown its there to get out of vale what it can , never mind the true vale fans.. the club needs to be freed , and the only way this will be , is administration yet again, yet still the club my be doomed .and become a chester city , greedy football players across the leauges and prem leauge are killing the great game...it wont be long before the old north and south divs form again, and go semi pro...football is dieing a slow death...

Vale squad just not good enough.For two season we've finished mid table - can't see why anyone would think we could do better with largley the same group of players.The spine of the team is OK with Owen,Griif(when played defensivley only) and Ricco but the rest aren't good enough.No money (no surprise there then)- so we have to make do so I would like to see Micky play Lofty in the middle without the ball and left side withit to get an extra central midfielder in the middle. I think the midfield is very light weight and seems to be overun in a lot of games this season so this should help to tighten things up.Think we should give Morsey a chance or even Kingsley James who has been playing well in the reserves.

The highest placed team in league 2 we have managed to beat this season is Rotherham who are now in 10th. We also lost in the first round of the FA Cup to a Conference Side. We are in 13th place in the league. A small improvement could see us competing for the playoffs, but we are not strong enough to compete in league 1 anyway. I guess a run at the playoffs will keep attendances up and provide supporters with some hope.
The club's stadium and support is enough for league 1 or even championship football. But there is no prospect of that at present unless there is a fundamental change in the way the club is run. In the last few days we have lost to Cheltenham and Macclesfield. People can say we were unlucky, but we have lost a lot of "unlucky" games this season. Clearly radical change is needed to stop a continued spiral of decline. We are now probably 30%-40% below where on average Port Vale should be in the league structure. And when we can't manage to see off Cheltenham and Macclesfield - how many times have we lost to them in the last few seasons - we are in trouble.

"The lack of transfer funds will further alarm fans already concerned by Vale's finances after the club took out a £277,000 mortgage only last month to cover running expenses."
Anyone from the Starve 'em Out campaign care to comment? Far from being "alarmed" I would have thought they were dancing on the spot, claiming a famous victory. Condemning us to non-league football (in fact wishing for it) it not the way to attract new blood into the club.
On a more sinister note, the issuing of threats of physical violence against named individuals over the internet won't help either. Who the hell would want to submit their families to that prospect. What a club! Even as a fan in 5 different decades, if I won the Euro millions I wouldn't dare come anywhere near Port Vale with assistance.